


Over and Over

by puppyduckster



Category: Malcolm in the Middle
Genre: Alternate Universe - Groundhog Day (1993) Fusion, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, no Wilkercest, no update schedule, other tags may be added later, possibly some mild Cynthia/Malcolm, season 4, seriously there won’t be any of that here, the fic nobody asked for
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-19 07:23:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22840618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puppyduckster/pseuds/puppyduckster
Summary: Malcolm Wilkerson has just suffered through one of the most humiliating days of his life. What with being antagonized by his classmates, and completely humiliated by his mother, all Malcolm wants to do is forget the day ever happened. There’s just one problem. The next day is the same all over again.(On Hold)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 13





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Malcolm in the Middle or Groundhog Day either for that matter.

Author’s Note: And here it is! The Groundhog Day Style MITM fic that literally nobody asked for. Before I get started, I wanted to let a few things be made clear. This story takes place during Season 4 and is specifically set around the episode Humilthon. This story will also not contain any Wilkercest so if you were looking for that, then this is not the fic for you. There may be some mild Malcolm/Cynthia, but that’s the closest this story will come to romance. In my mind Malcolm tried to crash the car on a Friday so that is when the story will be taking place. I’m planning on this story being around 20k-25k in length, but that may change. With that being said I hope you enjoy it!

* * *

Malcolm Wilkerson thought he knew embarrassment. After all his entire life had been a complete joke since the day he was born. It was rather typical for his life to have turned out the way it had, he used to think to himself wryly. After all, his mother was a complete tyrant, his father was constantly acting like a joke or at least doing whatever Lois told him to do, Francis was a world renowned troublemaker, Reese was...Reese, and Dewey had always been a little bit strange, Malcolm had used to think that he was the only normal one in his family, but that sense of status had changed as soon as his mother had him placed in the Krelboyne class a few years prior. From there, Malcom’s life turned upside down faster than a person could say “Jackie Robinson,” Malcolm went from being a relatively cool guy on his old school campus to being a complete joke. It became almost a routine for Malcolm to be the subject of some sort of torture at school. Reese would usually beat up most of the kids at school who said or did anything, but the truth of the matter was that Reese couldn’t be everywhere at once. 

That had been why Malcolm was looking so forward to high school. It had less to do with new classes and new teachers, and more to do with the fact that for the first time in years he had a fresh start. He didn’t have to worry about getting his body stuffed in a trash can or dealing with the other kids’ sneering remarks as he made his way out of the Krelboyne classroom. He could actually become friends, with the popular kids he acted like he despised instead of being at the bottom of the social ladder like he used to be. But of course, life never had a way for turning out the way he wanted to. As if being called “Stain” for the entire week wasn’t bad enough, he also had to deal with his mother dragging him out of the car in front of the entire school. He had a sneaking suspicion that sight alone probably made him lose whatever street cred he’d gotten from Cynthia’s impromptu rumor. 

Cynthia. Even now a few hours after getting home from school, Malcolm had been thinking about what she had said. She must’ve known that spreading that rumor around about what she and Malcolm had “done” would compleyly destroy her repuation and yet she had done it willingly. He couldn’t understand it. As much as he hated to admit it, Malcolm had never been the best friend there was. He had once abandoned Stevie during their first sleepover and he had spent his first week of school trying to pretend as if he didn’t know his old friends.

* * *

“Malcolm!” his mother’s voice said sharply and Malcolm looked up at her startled. “What on earth got into you?! What in the name of God were you thinking?! Millitary school! You were trying to get sent to millitary school?!” 

Malcolm sighed. He had to admit that telling his mother about his plan to pull a “Francis” hadn’t been the smartest idea he had ever had. In his defense, it sounded much better in his head. Then again, Malcolm’s worst ideas always sounded perfect in theory. 

“I can’t believe this!” Lois continued raving. “You’re in high school now! I thought you would’ve known better, but once again it looks like I was wrong. You know day after day you and your brothers have done nothing but cause trouble all day long!”

“Well this is your fault!” Malcolm blurted out without thinking, He winced. That had not been the right thing to say in this situation. His mother had never liked it when her sons or anyone for that matter tried to place the blame on her and that philosophy most certainly hadn’t changed any time in the past few minutes she had been yelling at him.

His mother crossed her arms and stared sternly at him. “Oh really? This is my fault now?”

“Yes!” Malcolm snapped. “You completely embarrassed me in front of the whole school! The entire school knows me as “Stain” now thanks to you!” 

“Right, because this is all my fault. I do everything for you. I feed you, I give you clothes, a place to live. I give you presents on your birthday and Christmas and I do whatever I can to make sure you stay safe. But, of course it’s my fault that a bunch of shallow self obsessed teenagers don’t like you is that right?” Lois retorted. “You’re grounded for the next two months. From now on you’re staying in your room. That means no phone, no TV, and no going to your friends’ house. You’re only leaving the room for mealtimes, going to the restroom, or if you’re dying. Understand?!”

“Fine.” Malcolm grumbled. He was beyond furious with his mother. Two months? Sure he knew he deserved some sort of punishment for what had transpired, but wasn’t two months taking things too far? After all it wasn’t as if anything had actually happened. Still, Malcolm didn’t have in him to argue with his mother anymore at that point and stormed off to the bedroom he shared with Reese and Dewey. 

He threw himself down on his and Dewey’s bed and silently fumed to himself. Why did everything in his life have to suck? For once why couldn’t he have a normal life? A normal family? Normal kids weren’t completely embarrassed by their mothers in front of the entire school. Normal kids didn’t have their entire reputation ruined during the first week of school.

* * *

The rest of the night passed by the way Malcom had expected with his mother flashing him cold glares when she knew he was looking. As soon as Malcolm had finished his dinner, he was sent off to his room where he waited until Reese and Dewey finally came in for bed. Malcolm’s only source of comfort was that at least tomorrow was Saturday and he wouldn’t have to deal with seeing any of his classmates till Monday. At long last, Malcolm finally managed to close his eyes and drift off into sleep long after Dewey and Reese had finally passed out.

* * *

Malcolm would have prefered sleeping late the next day, but it appeared as if Fate had other plans when his alarm clock rang at 6:30 the next morning which was especially strange, because he never set an alarm on the weekends.

* * *

Thank you for reading! I know this chapter was short, but we’ll be diving into the story by next chapter. I’ll try my best to have this story completed, but I’m also battling real life at the same time, so I cannot promise quick updates. Please let me know your thoughts though. Comments help keep me motivated :)


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malcolm wakes up to find the next day is rather familiar. Maybe a little too familiar.

It wasn’t as if Malcolm’s alarm clock had never rang on a weekend. Sometimes he had an important extracurricular activity to do early in the morning, one of his brothers thought it’d be a good way to annoy him by setting his alarm, or it was always possible that Malcolm had simply set an alarm by mistake. It wasn’t likely, since he prided himself on being able to remember simple tasks such as this one, when the rest of his family wasn’t always able to, but there was a first time for everything. Malcolm rolled over in his bed and groaned. Judging from the alarm clock, it was precisely around 6:30 in the morning. He frowned. He definitely didn’t have anything planned especially since his mother had grounded him from doing anything other than school or breathing and he distinctly remembered having not set his alarm for the weekend. The most likely option was that Reese being the idiot he was, had decided to turn his alarm on while he was sleeping for one of usual moronic jokes.

“What the hell Reese?” Malcolm snapped at his older brother who was just beginning to roll out of bed.

Reese glanced at him sharply. “What?”

“What did you set my alarm for?” Malcolm snapped.

“You set the alarm buttmunch,” Reese retorted irritated. “You know about school?”

“Today’s a Saturday,” Malcolm said slowly.

“No it’s Friday. We have school today remember? Stain.” Normally Malcolm would’ve rolled his eyes at his brother or come up with a snarky remark of his own, but this time he was a little perturbed at Reese’s words. If Reese wasn’t being a complete moron, then perhaps it really was a Friday. In that case did it mean that Malcolm had dreamt the whole day yesterday? It didn’t seem likely, but what other possible explanation did he have? He began getting dressed in a bit of a daze, while his thoughts kept spinning in his head. He was sure that today was supposed to be Saturday. After all, yesterday was so vivid.

It wasn’’t every day your mother dragged you out of her car after your classmate told everyone the two of you had sex together. Not to mention his mother had been absolutely furious. It was hard to dream up that kind of anger especially when it came to Lois Wilkerson.

Of course it was just a dream you idiot. That’s the only logical explanation.  
Suddenly his mother yelled, “Malcolm get a move on!” and he startled Malcolm out of his thoughts. He hurried into the kitchen where she was busy packing the boys' lunches while scolding Reese for having attempted to slip an ice cube down Dewey’s back. “Remember, you better be at home by 3:15 so you can watch your little brother understand?” Lois said and Malcolm nodded slowly. “I mean it. Not a second past 3:15 you hear?”

“I know.” Malcolm said. Normally he would’ve been more sarcastic, but he didn’t feel up for it that day. The young teenager felt like a zombie as he began going through all the motions he did before, afraid that doing anything differently would cause something even weirder to happen.

* * *

Unfortunately even though it seemed he had dreamed up Friday, he hadn’t dreamed up the rest of the week. From the moment he walked into school, he was greeted by “Hey there Stain!” Or “How’s it going Springstain?”

He couldn’t find any of his friends either although to be honest that wasn’t a surprise seeing as how much he’d been mistreating them lately. He didn’t see any of them until lunch where he was once again sitting at a table by himself. They took their seats with him and began blathering about how they had all joined the Chess Club and how Dabney and Llyod were the Chess King and Queen. Cynthia must’ve noticed his pensive expression, because she said. “Are you okay Malcolm?”

“What?” Malcolm said looking up startled. “Yeah, Yeah I’m fine.”

“Well try and cheer up Malcolm,” Cynthia said. “It’s only the first week. People will forget anything ever happened. Anyone aren’t you the ones who said that all the popular kids are just a bunch of shallow self obsessed jokes?”

“Well maybe I’m shallow too!” Malcolm exclaimed. “I want them to like me. Maybe that’s stupid, but this was my first chance to have a good repuation ever since being a Krelboyne ruined it at our old school. And now I don’t even have that anymore.”

His friends looked at him sympathetically for a moment before Stevie breathed out “There’s-always-college.” Malcolm rolled his eyes. “That’s four years away Stevie!” Stevie smirked.

* * *

Malcolm went through the rest of the school day doing everything he remembered from his dream? Yesterday? Every time something eerily familiar happened to what he remembered, he would flinch and immediately go back to whatever he was doing. It was definitely turning out to be a weird day and all Malcolm wanted at this point was to go home.  
He was making his way out of the school when he heard Cynthia calling his name and the next thing he knew, she had looped her arm through the crook of his elbow. She began blathering on about joining The Y and was trying to convince Malcolm to join her as well, when Reese came running up exactly like Malcolm remembered.  
“Mom’s here!” Reese blurted out. “Dad got in trouble. Mom’s really pissed.”

  
“Mom’s here?” Malcolm said. Perhaps this time his plan would work. Maybe this was the universe’s way of giving him a weird second chance even if it came in the form of a bizarrely physic dream of sorts. “That’s it!” Malcolm exclaimed and before Cynthia and Reese could say anything, Malcolm had detached himself from Cynthia and bolted to their car.

This time his plan would work. Sure he’d be spending the rest of his teenage years at Marlin Academy or some other rigorous military school, but at least he wouldn’t be subject to anymore ridicule from his peers. He was just about to grab the Hide A Key from under the car, when Cynthia ran up to him. He winced. Great. “Malcolm!” Cynthia painted out of breath. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“I’m going to crash the car and get myself sent to military school like Francis did.” Malcolm explained.

Cynthia stared at him incredulously. “Malcolm that is the stupidest thing I ever heard!”  
“No it’s genius!” Malcolm said and before Cynthia could do anything else, Malcolm had opened the door of the car and stepped in. Like before Reese had tried to stop him as well until he realized that Malcolm wasn’t above running over his own brother in order for his plan to work, when Cynthia began knocking on the car window.

He sighed and rolled down the windows. “What?”

Cynthia looked around at the entire school who had gathered to watch and blurted out, “Malcolm if you do this I will never have sex with you again!”

“Again?” Malcolm echoed just as the whispers and murmurs began filling the schoolyard. Even his friends were looking surprised and Reese looked as if he wasn’t sure if he should be jealous or impressed. Malcolm hesitated knowing that now would be the best time to leave or follow through on his plan, but before he could his mother had appeared out of nowhere and yanked him out of the car.

* * *

That night Malcolm sat back in his room long after Reese and Dewey had fallen asleep. His mother had grounded him and Cynthia’s reputation was most likely ruined, but his one consolation was that tomorrow would most certainly be a Saturday. He even made sure to unplug his alarm clock so that it would not have any chance of going off the next day. He lay down in bed and fell asleep. 

* * *

He heard the alarm clock before he noticed anything else. It was the same beeping sound it always was, but this time it was somehow even more awful than usual. No. No. No. This was not happening. Malcolm sat up in bed. His heart was pounding in his chest, his hands felt sweaty, and he almost felt like crying. What the hell was going on? His alarm wasn’t supposed to go off. Reese and Dewey weren't supposed to be getting up for school. It was supposed to be a Saturday and he should be grounded. Malcolm had no idea what was going on, but things were most certainly NOT alright.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment and let me know what you think :)


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malcolm tries not to freak out during the midst of his new “problem”.

Malcolm lay in bed for several minutes unwilling to do anything other than listen to his thoughts which had by now become increasingly more panicked by the second.

It was clear that what was happening to him was no longer a dream nor could it be classified as anything resembling deja vu.

Malcolm barely registered Reese and Dewey leaving the bedroom until he saw Lois entering the room with an annoyed expression on her face. When she saw that Malcolm was still in bed with no apparent inclination that he was getting up anytime soon, she immediately marched over to him and yanked his pillow out from under him.

Malcolm jumped up. "Mom! What the hell?!"

"It's time for you to get up," Lois snapped. "You have school today and there is absolutely no way you can stay at home unless you're bleeding profusely or dying."

Malcolm sighed _. I can't go to school today. I wouldn't be able to face everyone without complete freaking out. I have to figure out a way to convince Mom to let me stay home from school._ He decided the best thing to do would to simply pretend he was sick. He did feel particularly listless that morning after all.

He began coughing loudly and sniffed loudly to give the impression that he was severely ill. "Mom- I really don't feel well," he said trying to sound tired, and sick(which truth be told wasn't all that hard.) He put a hand on his head. "My stomach's been killing me."

His mother glared at him suspiciously. "Yeah right. I know you better than that Malcolm. You're going to school today and that's final."

"Mom please," Malcolm begged her desperately. "I can't go to school today. I feel like I may throw up."

Lois felt his forehead with a sigh of exasperation before she pulled her hand back frowning. "You do feel rather clammy," she said with a hint of what could have been concern. She was silent for several moments until she said, "Fine you can stay home from school today. But! There will be no TV, no sneaking out of the house, no doing anything stupid and that includes trying to burn the house down. And you have to keep an eye out for your little brother when he comes home from school is that clear?"

Malcolm nodded. Truth be told he had no interest in doing any of those things that his mother had banned him from doing anyway. He only wanted to figure out what was happening to him and why.

Lois stared at him suspiciously for a few seconds before she began to leave the room. Before she left however she said, "I'll have Reese tell Stevie or one of your other friends to send over the homework you'll have to do."

Malcolm nodded again. His mom left the room again and Malcolm was planning on trying to fall back asleep when Reese burst in.

"Is the Big Stain too scared to go to school?" Reese said in a mocking manner.

"Shut up Reese," Malcolm growled.

"Oh I'm sorry did I offend the Great Stainmaster?" Reese grinned at him nastily. Malcolm sat up and tried to punch him from where he was sitting on his bed, but his older brother moved out of the way before Malcolm reach him.

He gave Malcolm the middle finger which the younger boy immediately returned, before he left the room. As soon as Reese was gone though Malcolm buried his face in his pillow and let out a loud groan of frustration that could have been heard by anyone had they chosen to be in his bedroom at the moment.

Why was this happening to him?! It made absolutely no sense. Today a technically should've been Sunday by all counts after all. Malcolm waited until he was sure that his parents and brothers had left the house before he finally left his bedroom.

Malcolm stumbled towards the kitchen where he poured himself a glass of orange juice and stared at the glass for several minutes. He could barely muster enough energy to lift the glass to his lips and take a sip. It felt like it took hours for Malcolm to finish half the glass and by the time he did that, he simply poured the rest of it out.

Was he going crazy? Was that what was happening to him? Malcolm also knew that he couldn't tell anyone in his family what was happening to him. After all nobody would believe it.

Lois would think he was a liar and end up grounding him, Hal would think he had gone crazy and try to send him to some sort of doctor, Reese would punch him, and Dewey-well Malcolm wasn't completely positive what Dewey would do, but he likely would be just as unbelieving if Malcolm decided to try and confide in him.

Francis? No that wouldn't work either. His oldest brother still wouldn't believe him and even if he did, he was at the ranch for Piama and therefore he wouldn't be able to spare the hours long drive to the Wilkerson's house.

Malcolm let out another groan of frustration and hid his face in his hands. He was just glad that nobody else was around to see him, because the more he dwelled on what was happening to him, the stronger the urge to cry became. At one point his eyes began burning rather suspiciously and he quickly tried to distract himself.

_Do not start crying Malcolm. You're a high schooler and a genius for god's sake. Crying won't help you out of your situation. There has to be something that could help you._

It was at that moment that Malcolm was struck with a memory of a movie he hadn't seen in years. A movie that was very similar to his own life at the moment. What was it called again? Malcolm puzzled over it for several minutes until the answer suddenly came to him.

Groundhog Day! The main character in that movie had the exact same problem that Malcolm was having. Sure it was just a movie, but perhaps something in there would be able to help him.

* * *

_And here's chapter 3! I'm really sorry that it took so long for me to post it. Real Life has been crazy to be honest. I'll try to update soon but I honestly can't promise anything. Please leave a review/comment though as those really do help me stay motivated!_


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Malcolm watches Groundhog Day for some inspiration and is later greeted by an unwelcome visitor.

Malcolm was not freaking out. Okay, his palms were sweating and his knees were shaking, but that was just part of being a teenager right? Right. He had everything completely under control.  _ Yes your plan for watching Groundhog Day is absolutely going to stop whatever is happening here.  _ A nasty voice in his head told him and Malcom scowled as he told his inside voice to shut up. He hadn’t completely ruled out the possibility of him going crazy yet, but Malcolm really didn’t feel like going down that rabbit hole at the minute. He was only fourteen after all. Surely, he had time before his brain turned completely into mush. Didn’t he? 

So Malcolm turned on the TV and began frantically flipping through the channels hoping against hope that he would come across what he was looking for. Much to his annoyance he kept stumbling across a news channel or a football game and Malcolm was becoming more and more tempted to just give up on his(admittely stupid) plan and find something else to do. Finally by some stroke of luck Malcolm finally stumbled upon the movie he was looking for and he sighed in relief. It was even more lucky that it just so happened that the movie had just started playing on the channel as well, so he wouldn’t miss anything.

He knew that most of his plan depended on him being able to watch the movie before his parents came home. Normally Malcolm wouldn’t have been too worried about that, but he wasn’t sick “yesterday” and so he had no idea if that meant Lois would come and check on him. He shuddered what to think about what would happen if Lois came home early and saw that not only was Malcolm wide awake, but he was also watching television when he should’ve been too sick to move.

Sure, Malcolm liked to play a brave front when it came to his mother most of the time, but Lois Wilkerson wasn’t like your average “nice” mother and her wrath was not something to be taken lightly. Heck the last time Malcolm pretended to be sick, Lois made him sleep outside in the yard for a whole week. He wasn’t entirely convinced that his mother wouldn’t do that again.

Malcolm lay back on the couch and just decided to watch as much of the movie as he could in the unknown amount of time. Like Malcolm had remembered, the movie started off with the main character-Phil living his normal(albeit boring) life and Malcolm snorted as he realized that he could more or less relate to what was going on in Phil’s life right now. This situation he was currently in was probably the most interesting thing to ever happen to him and yet it was also driving him nuts, so he couldn’t see the good in it all either. 

The movie ticked by slowly as Malcolm watched as Phil gradually started becoming more and more selfless until he was finally able to end the constant reliving of Groundhog Day. Sure the moral of the story was nice and all, but there was a huge problem. Phil was an adult in the movie while Malcolm was just a lousy ninth grader. A ninth grader who had recently gotten the nickname of Stain thanks in no part to his own mother. He scowled again at that memory, although to be fair at least this time his mother wouldn’t be dragging him out of her car and Cynthia wouldn’t have the chance to come up with the rumor. Malcolm still didn’t get why Cynthia would have risked her social life like that for him. Truth be told Malcolm hadn’t always been the greatest friend to her and he usually spent more time with Stevie than he did with Cynthia.

Malcolm decided to bring his thoughts back to himself as he needed to figure out how to stop this thing from occurring any longer. He really didn’t want to have to go through as many days as Phil was going through if he could help it. A small smile graced his features as he realized that he did have one thing going for him that Phil from the movie did not. Malcolm was technically a genius. Having an IQ of 165 meant that he was extremely smart and had been the smartest kid in the Krelboyne class and had once used his abilities so much that he caused his own classmates to have a mental breakdown because they couldn’t keep up with him. However, Malcolm never liked to put all the blame on himself for that one, since Mr. Herkabe had come up with that stupid system-that Malcolm had exploited- in the first place.

_ Okay so how do I even solve this problem in the first place? I may be a genius, but this is still beyond my experience.  _ Malcolm thought in frustration just as he heard his mother’s voice shriek “MALCOLM! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” 

Malcolm winced inwardly as he turned around and saw a furious Lois with her hands on her hips. Her eyes were gleaming dangerously and Malcolm thought her nose was flaring a bit as well. He guessed that she had come to check on him early and he was too busy watching the TV to even notice her coming into the house.

“Mom-” Malcolm began, but Lois cut him off.

“I don’t want to hear it,” Lois snapped. “You are grounded for the next week and you can start your punishment by cleaning out the bathroom.”

“The whole bathroom?” Malcolm asked her incredulously thinking that this punishment was beyond unfair. Then again, Malcolm wasn’t all too sure that his mother cared too much about that part. 

“Now,” Lois commanded him with a larger scowl on her face and Malcolm grumbled under his breath, but he did what she said anyway. As he walked to the bathroom, he couldn’t help but hope partly that he could relive this day again and prevent his punishment from happening.

*******  
 _Hey, look who finally managed to update this. I’m not sure when the next update will be as real life is still quite busy._

_Thanks for reading!_   
  



End file.
